Reasons Why Good Teachers Quit

Updated on July 5, 2016

Source

Top 5 Reasons Many Teachers Quit

Many teachers quit because teaching is difficult and, to compound this circumstance, many school and school district administrations practice micromanagement and a lack of support that drives teachers away.

The U.S. Department of Education; National Center for Education Statistics Teacher Follow-up Survey shows these major self-reported reasons among 7,000 teachers and former teachers for why they quit or are likely to soon quit.

Obstacles To Teaching

Click thumbnail to view full-size

Lack of supplies and equipment. | Source

Budget Contraints | Source

Poor working conditions in urban settings. | Source

Crowded Classrooms | Source

(1 - 3) Administrative Battles

The persons interviewed in the survey report:

(1) A constant battle with the administration, including submitting weekly lesson plans for examination and approval. This red tape entanglement holds up educators' work and the students' progress.

Teachers often feel that they are being directed to "teach to the test", with emphasis placed only upon memorization of facts instead of on active learning, which is effective learning.

The educational bureaucracy has resulted in slow-downs in classroom progress because of numerous re-writes of lessons and lesson plans to improve standardized test scores only not learning - and too many last-minute changes required by school and district administrations.

According to a recent report on teacher attrition by the National Center for Education Statistics, among teachers who quit and took non-education jobs, 64% did so in order to have more autonomy at work, without micromanagement.

This survey among 7,000 current and former teachers also listed the following two administration related conditions as primary reasons for leaving:

(3) Unreasonably Heavy Workloads.

I remember the split-classroom concept of the 1960s in which two elementary school grades learned together, the older kids helping the younger students at times.

These classrooms still only had 24 or 26 students total, while aides and parents also made themselves available to help. Today, some elementary school rooms contain over 35 or 45 children, with no aides or any other help.

Some high schools have split days, in which two full high schools student populations attend from 7am - 1pm and 2pm - 8pm, or similar hours, in two shifts. Some of the teachers work from before 7am to 8pm, without extra pay for doing double duty.

These workloads are too heavy.

(3) Poor General Working Conditions.

Poor work conditions sometimes encountered includeparking lots in serious disrepair, broken school windows, leaking roofs, restroom toilets that do not work, poor heating in the winter and no air conditioning in the spring and summer.

Many teachers could add dozens of other bad conditions that discourage them from facing another work day. The prospect of years in these conditions is untenable.

In one survey of teachers who quit to take non-educational jobs, a full 64% did so in order to enjoy greater autonomy at work, especially to eliminate micromanagement.

(4) Standardized Test Score Accountability is Too Harsh

Too much responsibility for accountability scores on No Child Left Behind and other standardized testing and accountability initiatives was listed as another major reason to quit.

As the US states increased education reforms via NCLB and local accountability initiatives, they also loaded increasing and unreasonable accountability standards onto the teachers, without permitting them the necessary training, vital ongoing professional development, or mandatory supplies they needed in order to accomplish the job.

These teachers often were given too many students per classroom as well. This sometimes resulted in too many students in a room that were memorizing facts, but not being able to retain them in order to score high enough on NCLB-mandated tests. These students also did not know how to use or apply the facts they memorized. Critical thinking as a learned skill was bypassed.

In addition, many parents in urban school districts (which generally scored the lowest on NCLB-mandated testing) were unable to help their children with educational needs. This dumped more responsibility onto the already-broken teacher's backs.

Teachers often feel that they are being directed to "teach to the test" with only memorization of facts instead of active learning.

(5)Teaching is No Longer Rewarding

Teaching was no longer rewarding, emotionally or fiscally, since raises in pay were denied when students' scores were not raised high enough. Some teachers were fired for this and others quit. All this created problems regarding unfair terminations with the teachers' labor unions and growing bad blood between teachers and their unions with administrations.

One -fifth, or 20%, of public school teachers that had no previous full-time teaching experience quit in the school year 2004-2005. Overall, 65% of former public school teachers report that they are better able to balance work and personal/family life since they quit teaching. Before quitting, nearly all their time was spent on such things as rewriting lesson plans, purchasing their own supplies, and working unpaid overtime hours without additional needed training.

Teaching was no longer rewarding, emotionally or fiscally, since raises in pay were denied when students' scores were not raised high enough.

Support and Reseources for Teachers and Friends

Welcome to GOV.UKGOV.UK - The place to find government services and information - Simpler, clearer, faster. Teachers in UK can receive up to 5,000 pounds sterling as a starting bonus.

Overall, 65% of former public school teachers report that they are better able to balance work and personal/family life since they quit teaching.

No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), most often referred to as NCLB, is a United States federal law that was passed in the House of Representatives on May 23, 2001.

It was signed into law on January 8, 2002 and reauthorized a number of federal programs that aimed to improve the performance of U.S. primary and secondary students and schools by increasing the standards of accountability (higher standardized test scores) for states, school districts and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which specific schools their children will attend.

Additionally, it promoted an increased focus on reading and mathematics and re-authorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).

Comments 41 comments

I earned my teaching credentials 3 1/2 years ago. Teaching was my dream---I love education and I love learning and it's a natural fit for me to be in a classroom.

I've been unemployed for 7 months, having been fired from my last job where I just didn't fit into the ultra-conservative atmosphere.

I've decided after much soul-serching that the public education system and I are just not a good fit.

What's really sad is that, in every classroom setting I've worked in, I increased test scores, student achievement, and (best of all) ENTHUSIASM for learning. I've had great feedback from students along the way and know I have it in me to be one of those influential-type teachers that most educators really want to be. However, administrators have pretty much pushed me out of it because they think that, since my students aren't sitting in neat rows taking copious notes while they politely listen to me lecture, I don't have the proper classroom management skills they value.

It's been so painful. Thanks for your blog and for letting me vent a little.

Patty Inglish, MS 8 years ago from North America Author

Twice in the last 20 years I have seen movments away from neat-regimented-rows to participatorty education and different structures. Administrations forget that the Latin word for "to teach" means TO BRING OUT OF, not "to put into."

Try teaching in a charter school. Simetimes that's better, sometimes worse. Or might you become a tutor that works with several kids at once after school. I believe there is still federal funding towards agencies that facilitate that under No Child Left Behind and the SES - Supplemental Educational Services. But the NCLB did not receive renewal yet, I also beleive. I must read about this.

It reminds me fo the 1950s and 1960s all over again - Music and art CREATE a brain that can learn math and science - especailly when combined with language development, but some admins want to skip it because "it is worthless touchy feely crap." Then it gets eliminated.

Who's in charge here?!?

mcb1964 8 years ago

Patty,

In response to "who's in charge here!?": Not the people who should be in charge, for SURE!

Kids hold veto power over the whole thing and they are the ones who have been entirely DISEMPOWERED from public education.

(I have a whole flippin' lot to write on this---My experiences and observations in education have changed me from a person who was sort of amused by the system into a highly critical one who is passionately contemptuous of it, so I hope you'll read my future hubs.)

I am leaning toward private tutoring and hope to eventually open my own school. I am still reeling from my last teaching position, which was at a Charter school. For some reason the majority of charters that have opened in my area of the world are of the "back to basics" mentality.

NCLB is disgusting to me. It seemed sort of noble at first glance---Who doesn't agree that kids should have a quality education, after all? But when the idea is fully understood, one recognizes that it devalues every single individual it is meant to serve. It basically says, "Forget that you are a unique person with talents that you will surely use to add value to the world. What we value is how you measure up as what we've chosen as Normal."

Patty Inglish, MS 8 years ago from North America Author

Write on! I will read.

Seems NCLB tranlasted in many cities as more memorization and less hands-on learning.

Patty Inglish, MS 8 years ago from North America Author

Sounds like to you have a comprehensive plan that satisfies all sides. I'd like to hear more about your methods - project based hands on learning?

A problem with falsified testing results plagued our school district two years ago, but that seems to have been remedied. Four years prior to that, a set of official state GED history section exams were stolen and GED testing overall was shut down for 6 months while a new exam was written.

Abhinaya 8 years ago

The first reason seems to be very common.The teachers in my kid's school quit because they had problems with the principal.Though they were helpful to the parents many had to leave even after being in the school for about 15 to 18 years.The result - my child's performance in school went down with all newly appointed teachers.They had no experience.

When the higher authorities realized this she was transferred to another branch.I changed my son's school too.

Great analysis again Patty.Thanks.

Patty Inglish, MS 8 years ago from North America Author

Thanks for sharing your story too, Abhinaya. Teachers are most important, second to parents, in their influence and ability to shape healthy, educated youth. Good teachers must be recognized and lifted up!

vreccc 8 years ago from Concord, NH

Patty,

Our paths cross again. First with China and now with education. In addition to being the professional development coordinator of a large urban school district, I am also the District In Need Improvement Coordinator. DINI is the designation a school or district gets when they don't make AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress. I think I'll do a hub on what NCLB really is.

Now, don't mistake what I am about to say as support for NCLB. However, as a lover of education and a lover of my job, I have to jump on board. All of us at our district office hate it, but it isn't productive for us to sit around and complain about it, so we make the best of it.

So, we know all the bad things about NCLB. Here are the good. Teachers, (including me) are used to working in isolation. This is how it has been for years. We even despise and detest others being in our classrooms when we teach. What NCLB has done is forced schools to realize that student acheivement goes way up when teachers work together in Professional Learning Communities. What does a PLC do? This group of teachers look at student data and try to identify why students are not achieving proficiency. It's mind blowing the kinds of things we are discovering. For example, we have noticed a misalignment between curriculum and assessment. How did we miss this before???? It obvious to me now that in our district, if no teacher were any better at teaching and no student was any smarter, we could still see a huge gain in student achievement if we only aligned curriculum with assessment. And this is just one example. I could go on and on.

Great hub!!!!!!!!!

Patty Inglish, MS 8 years ago from North America Author

vrecc, we must be related!!

"...we have noticed a misalignment between curriculum and assessment. " PLC is truly an answer, isn't it? When I first taught GED I found that the standardized testing was done and teachers were then giving the students "just anything" -- even the ONE teacher that was board certfied. There was no curriculum at all at students received matierals for sections of the GED they had already mastered. The other teachers were suddenly laid off and I found myself alone. I recurited volunteer education students form the university. Long story short, we were able to remedy the deficit with Indidivualized Study Presrcriptions and some group and indidivual classes and tutoring sessions. We doubled and tripled the number of GED certificates achieved each smester, with fewer staff.

I would really like your Hub on NCLB. Amazing things we find, are they not?

William F. Torpey 8 years ago from South Valley Stream, N.Y.

Excellent hub, Patty, and the discussion adds a lot. I'm not in the education field, but I've always believed that educators should help students find their way to a good education, not push them toward some administrative goal. Too often, I believe, administrators are more interested in building an empire for themselves, rather than doing what is best for students. NCLB is a political, financial and educational disaster.

bluerabbit 8 years ago

Very good points. Teachers are very conscientious people and they want to do a good job, but it is just impossible. Teachers, like cops, are authority figures with no real power or influence in the social structure. They are not paid enough to be considered "important." Airhead blondes and 300 pound athletes are important. Their opinions count.

In the cities many factors contribute to student failure. One of these factors is transiency. Each school uses different books and follows a different style. When kids move, they have to start all over again. In cities that offer a variety of year-round school schedules. some children from very transient families can miss several consecutive tracks. There are other things, also.

My husband and I know a lot of former and retired teachers--all 60 and younger. My husband retired the day after his 55th birthday--the earliest possible date.

As for NCLB--let it be left behind with one of the worst administrations in American history.

Patty Inglish, MS 8 years ago from North America Author

It seems to me that NCLB did the conservative thing that has been done since WWII and cut out music and arts every time there is a need to cut back. Music and arts prepare the brain for math and reading, but the cutback kings don't care. Rote memorization is not learning, but the people in charge say to let the next generation take care of the problem. When is it going to end, I wonder?

My own 1st grade teacher quit as soon as she could, She said it was no longer fun adn no one learned anything anymore. All my own frineds that were teachers quit in their 30s. I think only one of them still teaches and he enjoys it.

Thanks for the comments, bluerabbit.

mr.ganesh 8 years ago

Once upon a time teaching was considered to be a noble proffession and most ladies preferred it .Ladies are supposed to be the embodiment of patience .But today they are forced to quit.the above reasons given are very true .Even during holidays they are called .The primary teachers work with the children who do not know even how to handle a pencil properly,cry for the parents,and like so many can be listed.They are paid much lessand not respected .Imagine a building without a proper foundation. If the people who give in the foundation are not taken care the good efficient teachers would definitely quit

secondly corporal punishment all teachers do not do it .when you talk so much about this why don't you think about why he was given (though he could have been spared of itgoes the saying "spare the rod and spoil the child" teacher would have given the child enough excuses and finally sort to punishment to correct the child .Today the child says beat me still i'll not do my work but i'll take you to the court for punishing .Where are the morals gone?

lot of clerical work burdened on the teacher along with the lesson plans and repeatition of the same is activity book to be written .people sitting on the highest chairs forget that they were also sailing in the same boat.and once one gets the they forget the past.

i only pray god that these chairs should be occupied by teachers who have taught in the classes and know the class room situations and problems instead of offering the chairs to ministers /ias/ips officers who are playing with the lives of millions of children

GURU BRAHMA GURU VISHNU GURU DEVO MAHESHWARA

GURU SAKHSHATHPARABRAHMA THASMY SRI GURUVE NAMAHA

HarrisJournal 7 years ago

I found this blog to the helpful. It makes me realize, why I left public education. I am in private education now. It's an alternative school. I think there is a little more hope in this situation. Only time will tell. I am starting to feel like I am to much of an advocate for people to want to be around me in a school. I will fight what's right for the child first..even if they don't know what they need.

Sophia 7 years ago

I teach high school English and have been for five years. I am seriously considering leaving the profession for all of the reasons listed in the article. It is amazing to me how incredibly thankless this job is and how no one is thinking about these kids.

Matilda 7 years ago

I have been teaching for a few (7)years now, and I find a major contribution to teacher retentions is how well a person can fit into the environment that they have been hired into.

It is very difficult to be teacher in a public school in today's society. Teachers have the added pressure of NCLB, but also making lesson plans for all the different courses they teach, grading all the papers, trying to build community with co-teachers, and dealing with parent's complaints. Another major concern is discipline in the classroom. For new teachers, entering into a classroom for the first time, will be an experience you cannot prepare for. For anyone who feels teaching is a "Cushy" job, I challenge you to try it for a year, if you can last, go to an urban school and have 30-35 kids in a classroom and TEACH. You have to deal with every child's emotions and behavior. Then when the day is over, deal with their complaining parents and their excuses for their children. What happened to the society where parents backed what the teacher was doing because then we were considered professionals and not babysitters. Kids, if they acted up in school, were disciplined in school and at HOME, and resulted in a cease in the bahavior.

I love to teach and I love to influence the minds of young people and make learning as "fun and creative" as possible. Before you step foot in a classroom you have to ask yourself if you are ready to be a TEACHER, but know that there are many more responsibilities than just teaching.

Jennifer 6 years ago

Once upon a time teaching was considered to be a noble proffession and most ladies preferred it .Ladies are supposed to be the embodiment of patience .But today they are forced to quit.the above reasons given are very true .Even during holidays they are called .The primary teachers work with the children who do not know even how to handle a pencil properly,cry for the parents,and like so many can be listed.They are paid much lessand not respected .Imagine a building without a proper foundation. If the people who give in the foundation are not taken care the good efficient teachers would definitely quit .

I don't know if I agree with this. I'm still a teacher in this profession, and I just bolster my beliefs and values and know that it's worth sticking it out. Finding other things to do helps keep me on task.

I read a lot of news from http://freeforteachers.info and they have conflicting information. They say teachers quit for other, less noble, reasons.

mimind 6 years ago from THE UNITED STATES

I am not a fan of NCLB why because I am in special education severe and profound classrooms. I am enrage every year that I have to stop teaching students to clean themselves or ask for a drink to test them on physics, writing etc. At first the alternative assesment was not so bad for some states (I adminster multiple state assesments (PA, NJ, NY). I could say this is the age appropriate grade level now put this skill at the students level and yes it would be a pre skill such as picture recognition, or coloring. Recently states have stoped that I am told no you must test exactly to those standards. Then I hear complaints my students score poorly but get 100 percent independance. I am not allowed to do hand over hand, photos are difficult to get permission for. I have had pressure to "fix data I take" I refuse every year. If in the trial my student eats part of the paper the remaining part will be turned in with observation notes explaining. Not everyone gets As or Bs frankly I see NCLB as expecting all to score well. Show me in adults where we all achieve the same. I ranted enough I can do this for hours. I will start planning a NY alternative assesment for a severe PICA student for grade 12 with a cognitive level and motor skills signifigantly below pre k in a month or so. Im just getting geared up

Patty Inglish, MS 6 years ago from North America Author

@mimind - Standardized testing can be a big problem and obstacle to education at times. Best wishes on the alternative assessment; it is clearly needed.

Reminds me - for adults in public assistance, the Welfare to Work initiative of the 1990s published a set of guidelines about what adults should know (and behave, actually), all tied to keeping one's benefits - also problematic, and kind of intrusive.

Laura 5 years ago

I would like to thank you for writing this article. When I first started studying the NCLB act I had thought it fair and the best way to help students. I realize now how many things the government is doing to jeopardize the education of students without thinking. I hope the revisions being made to the act by Obama will be more lenient in the way of creativity and the arts to allow children to develop minds that are more accepting of math and science. I'm writing a 10 page research paper on this act and your article has really helped me find my thesis and the direction I want to take with it.

Patty Inglish, MS 5 years ago from North America Author

Success to your writing, Laura! Let us know how it turns out.

Rachel 5 years ago

yeah, I retired.

Maggie 5 years ago

I am hoping that whatever NCLB is replaced with, will allow teachers to teach, and students to learn through exploration with the help of a dedicated teacher. Tests are find, but they should not take the place of real time learning for students.

I love teaching, I love seeing students discover new information and knowledge. I love seeing students feel proud of themselves when they "get it." However, under NCLB, I felt constrained. I was not teaching, I was simply reciting a prepared script every minute of the day.

As have many good and dedicated teachers, my principal dismissed me because I was not following the script the way she wanted me to.

I have not given up though, I'm still looking to get back in the classroom and do what I love to do. Teach.

Marni 5 years ago

There really was a time when the US DID have the best education around and I was lucky enough to have gone to school then. What was different? Everyone seemed to be on the same page. No matter what school I was in, what grade I was in, what class I was in, we were all expected to be able to spell, write in complete sentences and do basic arithmetic by both our teachers and our parents. I never once had an elementary teacher who did not know his or her math facts unlike two of my son's elementary school teachers. I grew up in a housing project and my son grew up in one of the richest places on the planet and yet I feel that my education was superior to his. I actually feel that I never had a bad teacher until college when I had a slew of grad students who basically committed the crime of skipping material. The student does not pick up on this until the next class when the following teacher assumes that you do not know the material because YOU were not studying. That habit of skipping material is everywhere in schools. The term I have recently heard is called vertical integration. In order for me to teach you I have to make certain assumptions about what you already know and then build on that information. If every student has had a radically different educational experience then the teacher can't do too much. I feel in my day that there was a de facto national curriculum. My husband from Indiana seemed to learn the exact same thing I did in Massachusetts. If we could just go back to what worked instead of everyone having these silly argument. Should we teach spelling and grammar OR learn to write for content. Should we learn to multiply by rote OR write paragraphs about the multiplication process? Why is this question always a mutually exclusive. Can we simply change the ORs to ANDs? Currently, one year your child has the back-to-basics teacher who will drill on multiplication, the following year's teacher rolls his or her eyes at such pedagogy and teaches writing about the meaning of multiplication and so it continues.

Patty Inglish, MS 5 years ago from North America Author

Thanks for the new comments - 100% insightful and needed to be heard.

Learn Things Web 5 years ago from California

I think Marni is absolutely right with what she said. You need to have some standardization, not just from school to school but from teacher to teacher. A third grade teacher should know exactly what has been taught in the second grade, so he/she can build on that. That's impossible when everyone seems to be doing their own thing.

The United States is a very mobile country with large numbers of students changing schools. It's disastrous for students when they change schools and everything is radically different. It's also disruptive for students who haven't moved to share classrooms with new kids who have no idea what's going on. We can't afford to have vast differences between schools and teachers. Countries with national education systems tend to be more successful academically for the very reasons Marni pointed out.

rachimater 5 years ago

teachers should not complain when they all get good pay and have beautiful children to look after and teach.

ps:so not true hahaha

That Guy 5 years ago

As a student in High School and having read this, this helped open my eyes a bit on what the teachers (namely the public education ones) have to go through and it appears no picnic. They have my condolences.

Patty Inglish, MS 5 years ago from North America Author

Thanks, Guy! Nice of you to write in. It really is difficult to teach in some public schools.

mary-lambert 5 years ago from Charlotte, NC

I was told by a school Superintendent that 85% of VA schools did not make AYP last year. Where are the teachers going to come from if all VA teachers lose their jobs? In 2014, we have to have 100% of all subgroups pass reading and math assessments. One student failing a test in any school would cause the school to not make AYP. Great dream, just not practical.

Patty Inglish, MS 5 years ago from North America Author

I agree with you, mary=lambert. It is very unusual and unlikely for a school to have 100% yo mention.

This reminds me of the play and film Glen Gary Glen Ross, where a couple of salesmen were always given purposely, clients having no intention of buying property. Doomed to failure.

mary-lambert 5 years ago from Charlotte, NC

Patty, I'm not familiar with that play, but I do know that of the 21 students that failed last year's state test in the previous grade, I got 19 of them this year in my class. Hmmm...

Patty Inglish, MS 5 years ago from North America Author

Your class is stacked like a deck of cards, it seems. I'll be thinking of you!

mary-lambert 5 years ago from Charlotte, NC

Thanks. : ) They are great kids, just weak in skills.

jim 5 years ago

As a high school teacher of 37 years, I find this discussion sane and refreshing in a world gone mad and stale. Yet, there is one simple fact that seems to be omitted from all paradigms. The NCLB has high stakes for everyone but the student taking the test ... and the test are geared toward students moving on to four year institutions. In this country we have a compulsory system (oxymoron) of education ... Does anyone else see the logical fallacy here??? (or have I simply been at this so long that I have lost it.) BTW ... I agree with the person who reminded us that NCLB is a political, economic tool ... Not an educational one ... (and I use the word "tool" as a euphemism) ... Thanks for helping me to realize there is still a bit of sanity out there ...

Patty Inglish, MS 5 years ago from North America Author

Jim, you make a good point in reminding us that the tests did not seem to help the students at all. It is mad as you say. Thanks for being a teacher!

margarita 4 years ago

it is alarming to me when i hear stories about the difficulties related to the profession of teachign. I am studing to be a teacher however, I am havig seconds thoughts due to the pressure brought upon teachers and teaching at the preset.

Silence Doogood 4 years ago

I have been a special education teacher for 16 years in California and I can't believe that before the year is up I can't wait for the summer to get here. Honestly, teachers are stuck! We has students who don't want to learn or are what I deem get-by-guys, students who want to do just enough to pass. Then there are the cheaters, despite multiple cheating incidents by repeat offenders, they simply receive warnings. I am a math teacher and have been asked to increase the amount of writing in the classroom but do you know how many papers and projects I get that are straight off of Wikipedia? And they argue that they didn't plagerize? Parents defend this behavior and claim the teacher is speaking too loudly or harsh and that their child can't work at the level and I'm talking high school students who have no real reason not to be able to manage 3rd gr level material. (note: just because you're a special Ed student is no reason you can't have a certain level of skills.) students are being lazy, unethical in many ways-lacking in many characteristics we desire in a community. (I know many students who are drug dealers, drug manufacturers, thiefs, and violent criminals. ). Too many are absent way too often, I'm talking 20-50 days a semester and then parents call a meeting to see how their child can make it up. Oh and then there are all the children having sex, sexing and trying to make out on campus. I know there are kids who text each other to "hook up" real quick of they can get away with it on campus/off campus. And so do you know how many students have babies?

Another thing teachers have been complaining about lately is how kids are pulled out of classes for testing, conferencing, to see other teachers, do other activities, etc. how can I account for so so many disruptions to classes and be accountable for tests?

The blog discussed paperwork and I cannot believe how much this has increased. Put simply, when I began as a special ed teacher my iep documents were five pages long, hand written. Now I have them often printing out at 21 plus pages long. These are legal documents with timelines and they MUST be exact. Where does the time come from to complete them, get the info to write them and then to hold a mtg. This time and attn has a cost and it's in my work time with the students and quality time with my children at home.

I can't believe I actually think about leaving the teaching profession. I love teaching and I love working with kids who want to learn. I even like hooking those occasional kids who I can convert to liking to learn. But I cannot ignore the increase in mean and violent students and unfortunately parents too. I am angered with more paperwork and admin who just doesn't care but says I've just got to deal with things. They will continue to pile things on and dismiss poor behavior with the students. I don't see it improving. How can people not hear the teachers cry but they so quickly look to blame the teachers for the downfalls? How is it ok to lose good teachers who spent so much time and money to become qualified for something who's only reward is pretty much something other than money? Do they know that we are telling our friends to reconsider teaching as a profession? Do they know we consider selling retail at Target or kohls or the grocery store than to take this abuse, disregard and disrespect? Do they know how many sacrifices we make in love for other peoples children to result in an increase in teachers seeking counseling, mood medications or stress leaves? All I wanted to do was teach; to have fun every day walking in and sharing my love for knowledge. Sadly I feel it is a fleeting feeling. Hopefully, the summer break does its magic and revitalizes me for the new year!

Joe Coates 4 years ago

I have always wondered why the teachers cannot change the culture of education? Why do we have all the issues we have? Why don't the teachers unions stand up, say enough is enough and CHANGE the system instead of complain about the system.

Kellie Parsons 4 years ago

I just left a job in North Carolina in Cumberland County because of a principal who micromanaged, used intimidation and fear to lead, and harrassed me to the point where even after giving the required 30 days, I still left early with only 8 days to go. As a result I will lose my license to teach. Not a good thing. I have taught for 11 years and never had a single complaint, reprimand, or otherwise negative thing said about my performance. In fact, a school I taught at in Utah, made AYP every year I was there. This was done with class sizes of 30 or more students, over 40 percent of students ESL, and over 49 percent in low socio-economic sub groups. This one person has adversly affected students, schools, and the profession as a whole. This is the way of education now

Patty Inglish, MS 4 years ago from North America Author

I am sorry to hear that you suffered such experiences, Kellie. Your story helps readers understand what is happening in some states. Can you bring a lawsuit for harassment and regain your license?